Google-Waze Deal Probed by U.S. Authorities

The Federal Trade Commission will examine the possibility of antitrust issue in Google’s acquisition for $1 billion of Waze, the social mapping service in Israel. The probe might force the Internet search giant to resell the newly acquired company.

The report says that although the deal was completed on June 11, Google thought it did not need to send the deal for FTC review since the U.S. revenue for Waze was under $70 million.

Google confirmed that the acquisition was being reviewed by the FTC, but did not provide any specific details regarding the investigation.

If it is concluded by the FTC that Google has to divest Waze, Google would likely take a loss in the resale of the company.

However, those chances are low since Google has such strength in the market and regulators tend to probe and thoroughly review every deal by the company, but rarely have deals been canceled.

For example, in January, the $12 billion acquisition by Google of Motorola received FTC approval following a long investigation.

Last week experts in the U.S. estimated that the deal would force regulators in the U.S. to intervene and then review it.

The biggest concerns that have been expressed in the U.S. are over the deal by Google to buy Waze are to do with the growing strength of the search giant in the navigation and mapping field.

One consumer group in the U.S. last week demanded the U.S. antitrust agencies stop the deal between Google and Waze, saying to would end up harming competition.

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